In this chapter, the authors offer a working definition of political humour and summarise its main aspects as discussed in the relevant literature: the genres where political humour surfaces or dominates; the reasons why political criticism is so often encoded in humorous terms; and the (side-)effects of political humour. They also discuss the so-called “inherent ambiguity of humour”, thus explaining why political humour does not necessarily influence politics. Rather than provoking social and political change, political humour conveys criticism against the political status quo and recycles and reinforces dominant values and views on politics. The diverse sociopolitical conditions may influence who is allowed to participate in the creation and circulation of political humour and who may become its target.
2023. Effects and perception of multimodal recontextualization in political Internet memes. Evidence from two online experiments in Austria. Frontiers in Communication 7
2021. Caveat emptor: boycott through digital humour on the wave of the 2019 Hong Kong protests. Information, Communication & Society 24:15 ► pp. 2323 ff.
Ferré-Pavia, Carme, Marçal Sintes & Catalina Gayà
2016. The perceived effects of televised political satire among viewers and the communication directors of political parties: A European case. European Journal of Cultural Studies 19:4 ► pp. 299 ff.
Georgalidou, Marianthi
2024. Humorous Genres and Modes in Greek Political Discourse. In Political Humor Worldwide [The Language of Politics, ], ► pp. 49 ff.
Hesse, Isabelle
2018. Humouring the conflict: Israel and Palestine in twenty-first century British and German travel writing. Studies in Travel Writing 22:2 ► pp. 199 ff.
Hirsch, Galia & Pnina Shukrun-Nagar
2023. Flirting with the Israeli Prime Minister, humorously . The European Journal of Humour Research 11:2 ► pp. 20 ff.
Khaylina, Anastasia & M. Belén Alvarado Ortega
2023. Propuesta de etiquetaje pragmático para un corpus conversacional en español. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación 96 ► pp. 19 ff.
Mohammed, Shaheed Nick
2014. “It-Getting” in the Colbert Nation Online Forum. Mass Communication and Society 17:2 ► pp. 173 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
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